Border to Coast Pension Partnership has secured the final two co-investment deals for its initial three-year private markets initiaitve, taking the value of the first programme to £5.7bn (€6.7bn).

Border to Coast is investing £60m (€70m) alongside KKR into John Laing, a developer, owner, and operator of a globally diverse range of public infrastructure assets that deliver societal benefits, such as hospitals, energy, and transport projects. With a team specialising in public-private partnerships (PPPs), it manages 40 projects across four continents.

Additionally, Border to Coast has made a $68m (€67m) co-investment alongside DigitalBridge into Vertical Bridge, the largest private owner and operator of mobile communication infrastructure sites in the US which is expected to benefit from the rollout of 5G technology. Certified CarbonNeutral in 2020 Vertical Bridge became the first tower company in the world to reach net zero emissions.

Border to Coast said it had secured a diverse range of investment opportunities for its Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) partner funds, while delivering around a 24% reduction in fees.

Mark Lyon, head of internal management at Border to Coast, said: ”The success of our private markets programme is a prime example of the benefits of pooling offers. It has delivered cost-effective access to investments that our LGPS partner funds may not have otherwise been able to access, and which offer the potential for attractive long-term, risk adjusted returns.”

First launched in 2019, the three-year programme focused on infrastructure, private equity and private credit and, taking advantage of Border to Coast’s scale, aimed to secure cost-effective access to private markets and the potential for enhanced long-term returns on behalf of its partner funds.

In total, the programme invested into 61 funds and made three co-investments.

The final tranche of the programme completed with £1.5bn of new commitments to infrastructure (£307m), private credit (£915m), and private equity (£232m) funds.

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